In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato asks us to consider that the world we live in is the equivalent of a cave; in order to enter this “sensitive realm” of truth and knowledge we must actively pursue these values. In his First Meditation, René Descartes asks us to abandon all pre-existing assumptions of the universe, since there is the possibility of being deceived. It is difficult to imagine that there is any legitimacy in any of these scenarios created by philosophers, since we are so involved in the complexities of our lives that it rarely crosses our minds whether there is any authenticity in what we are experiencing. However, the 1998 film The Truman Show provides a very plausible reality to these propositions. The Truman Show revives the concept of skepticism – the belief that the way you think things is not true – raised by Plato and Descartes. Recalling the Allegory of the Cave, The Truman Show presents a world in which man lives in a false reality. It is related to the idea of man's ignorance and his escape from it, which Plato writes about. Likewise, The Truman Show has similarities to Prime Meditations in terms of exploring a man's transition from trust to doubt in the world he is presented with. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Plato's Allegory of the Cave describes a series of circumstances in which humans have been trapped in a cave for their entire lives, with their only connection to the world the real world being the shadows cast on the wall in front of them by a blazing fire behind them. Because they have been stuck in this position their entire lives, this is how they perceive their world. Truman Burbank, the title character of The Truman Show, lives much like the people in the cave. The enormous television set on which he lives echoes the pseudo-reality that the cave provided for the prisoners in Plato's allegory. The actors hired to interact with Truman are like the fire that cast shadows for the people in the cave, as they both gave the illusion of true reality. However, like the prisoners, Truman spent much of his life never suspecting that there was anything wrong with the world he was presented with. Truman believes “that the truth is nothing but shadows” (Republic VII p.1133). At this point, Truman is not a skeptic, as he takes his false world at face value and believes it to be reality. The key aspect of the Allegory of the Cave is that the prisoner is ultimately freed from his chains and allowed to finally perceive the sensible realm. Truman's quest to seek the truth in his existence represents his liberation from the shackles imposed by Christof and everyone else involved in producing the television show about Truman's life. Plato writes about how one time reality can often be difficult to accept for someone who has lived in a state of ignorance their entire life. He connects it to coming out of a dark cave and having to adapt your eyes once you step out into the sunlight. The light is intimidating, but it is worth following, for once we immerse ourselves in it we cannot imagine returning to the dark state we once were in. This is applicable to Truman, who overcomes his fear of water to strive to reach a reality of which he had until then only seen the remnants. It was a risk, but in the end we see that it was still worth taking a risk. Once Truman runs into the wall – the boundary between the cave and the realm of the senses – Christof tries to convince him not to leave..
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